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We’ve sent al-Qaeda into a spin, says US chief in Iraq

(Sydney Morning Herald) DAVID PETRAEUS, the US military commander in Iraq, has given a preview of his forthcoming report to Congress, citing a dramatic reduction in violence in Baghdad and foreshadowing a “gradual” reduction in the number of troops in Iraq.

The Herald interviewed General Petraeus in Baghdad on Wednesday, after he had a 90-minute meeting with the Defence Minister, Brendan Nelson, and Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston.

General Petraeus revealed the thinking behind his report, due on September 10, on President George Bush’s “surge” strategy of increasing the number of US troops in Iraq, and divulged several measures of progress.

“We say we have achieved progress and will do all we can to build on that progress, [and] that al-Qaeda is off balance and we are certainly pressuring them,” General Petraeus said.

“Our objective, with all the Coalition forces is … to gradually bring the surge down. Obviously we have some more months with the surge forces [still in place].”

His optimistic view contradicts a report prepared for Congress, which was leaked on Wednesday. The report, by the US Government Accountability Office, says progress in Iraq has stalled, and only three of 18 benchmarks for political and military progress have been met.

General Petraeus said his challenge in gradually cutting US troop numbers was to decide what the battlefield “footprint” in Iraq should eventually look like. The 30,000 additional troops sent to Iraq have brought US troop numbers to 160,000. Australia has 1575 troops in Iraq.

Dr Nelson described his meetings with General Petraeus and the US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Croker, as “extremely useful”. Dr Nelson meets the US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, in Washington today.

Dr Nelson flagged Australia’s continued strong commitment to Iraq, saying “we are not looking for any premature withdrawal”.

“General Petraeus was very frank, very open in his assessment … we have quite a clear picture now of his thinking on the state of the Baghdad security plan, the surge … [and on] the security environment in Baghdad and in the south and the work being done by us and the British. We now have a much clearer picture of what General Petraeus is going to present to Congress … The message is that this is achievable.”

General Petraeus, 54, who commanded the 101st Airborne Division during the Iraq invasion in 2003, was appointed as commander of the Multi-National Force in Iraq in February.

In the interview with the Herald in his office in the US headquarters in a former Saddam Hussein presidential palace, he used as a benchmark of progress . the number of “ethno-sectarian deaths”, which have fallen steadily since December in Baghdad and in the rest of Iraq and have “come down for eight of the last 11 weeks to a level lower than for a year.”

In Baghdad, the monthly death toll has fallen by more than two-thirds. In the rest of Iraq, such deaths have dropped by more than 50 per cent, but General Petraeus said they were “still too high”.

“This is very much a work in progress,” he said. “We are a little over two months into the so-called surge.”

Having an extra combat infantry brigade, aviators and a marine expeditionary unit has been “very important”, he said. “It has enabled us to start offensives [and] go after the al-Qaeda sanctuaries. We see them as public enemy number one … That is not to say that militant extremists supported by Iran are not a … growing concern.”

He also cited success in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province. “It was like Stalingrad,” he said, an al-Qaeda stronghold and the most violent place in Iraq at the beginning of the year, but which was now peaceful after Coalition and Iraqi forces mounted an offensive in March and local Sunnis turned against the terrorists. He said al-Qaeda was also being forced out of strongholds in Baghdad and Diyala.

General Petraeus attributed much success to the “phenomenon of locals saying would it be OK if we pointed our weapons at al-Qaeda and not at you”.

Another measure of progress was the increasing number of al-Qaeda members captured and killed – more than 1500 a month, as well as a significant reduction in the number of homemade bombs, “the biggest killer on our battlefield”.

But there had been an increase in the number of more sophisticated bombs, which can blast armoured vehicles, and which the US Government says Iran has been supplying to insurgents.

General Petraeus spoke of the “malign involvement” of Iranian agents who had “trained, equipped and funded and in some cases directed” attacks on Coalition forces.

“This is not a pretty picture,” he said, pointing to fighting between Shiites and to the fact al-Qaeda was still unleashing suicide bombers.

He paid tribute to Australia and its troops, who are “the epitome of professionalism … extraordinarily capable. Australians ‘get it’,” he said. “That is the highest praise.”

He singled out for praise Australian Army Lieutenant Colonel David Kilcullen, his chief adviser on counterinsurgency operations, who rewrote General Petraeus’s counter-insurgency handbook this year.

Dr Nelson also visited Australia’s 1000 troops in Afghanistan this week and met President Hamid Karzai.

He had planned to deliver a letter from the Prime Minister, John Howard, to the embattled Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, but Mr Maliki had to fly to Kerbala after an eruption of violence in the city, and was unable to attend a meeting with Dr Nelson to receive it.

The letter also wanted to reiterate to Mr Maliki “that it’s very important in this difficult environment … that the Government govern … The patience of openhearted Australians should not be excessively tested.”

After meeting General Petraeus, Dr Nelson said: “We will continue to do what we believe is right. While we understand support for our continuing involvement in Iraq is a minority position … we have a moral responsibility not just to Iraqis and the nations of the Middle East but also to people suffering under terrorism, and … to our allies US and Britain.”